Traitors and Tragedies
by korben600
Summary: Mistral was left defenseless by Salem's agents before they attacked Haven. But nobody realized how defenseless until after the battle was over. Posted just prior to the Vol 5 finale, but this is an alternate ending. Warning: This is dark as hell.


Sun: Phew. Great victory guys, High Five! Now come on, I know a great place to celebrate in Haven! Neptune's probably already there!

Weiss: Neptune? You brought him with you?

Sun: Nahh, Neptune hates water, he never would've gotten on the boat to Menagerie with me. But...he lives pretty close to Haven so he's probably already here.

Weiss: Okay, but I haven't actually seen him anywhere. You'd think he of all people would be easily spotted. Have you tried calling him?

Sun: Oh, right, I'm back in cell range! [dial tone] [dial tone]

[Phone: Call Unavailable]

Sun: That's weird.

Weiss: Yeah, he always picks up, right?

Sun: ...

Weiss: Maybe he's just busy fighting off some Grimm, hold on-Hey! Jaune!

Jaune: Hey Weiss, what's up?

Weiss: You haven't happened to see Neptune around here, have you?

Jaune: No, actually, I haven't seen a single Haven student at all now that you mention it.

Sun: Wait, you haven't seen Sage, or Scarlet?

Jaune: I wouldn't recognize them, but I definitely haven't seen Neptune.

Sun: But how do you know there aren't any students here?

Jaune: You'd know better than me, but most of the people I fought beside were _way_ too old to Huntsmen in Training.

Sun: … [dial tone] Pick up Scarlet, pick up… [dial tone]

[Phone: Call Unavailable]

Sun: … [dial tone] Come on Sage, for once in your life keep your phone with you...

Sage: Hello

Sun: Sage! Buddy, thank god you picked up, listen, have you heard from Neptune, or Scar-

Sage: If you are listening to this, I'm on a mission, please leave a message after the tone.

Sun: …

Jaune: Hey, why don't we call Blake and the others, see if they've seen them.

Sun: Alright, I'll see if I can call anyone else from Haven.

Weiss: [dial tone] [click] Hey Blake, had you seen team SSSN anywhere?

Jaune: [dial tone] [click] Yang, listen, you know Neptune and Sun's team right? You seen them in the fight?

Sun: [dial tone] Come on, come on… [dial tone]

[Some time later]

Jaune: Nobody's seen them anywhere.

Weiss: Blake says that the faunus you brought from Menagerie haven't seen any Huntsmen in training either.

Sun: Nobody's picking up. One person, maybe even a team or two, but nobody…

Weiss: ...you know, Sage said something about being on a mission, right? Maybe they're on extended missions, the CCT has been down.

Jaune: Haven has a list of all missions that Huntsmen went on, right?

Sun: ...Yeah, the list is by some koi pond. Over here…

[Some time later]

Sun: GRBN, ABRN, SSSN! Here, "C-level mission extermination mission in Kuroyuri, immediate response needed" Ah, that's it. They just went on an extermination mission to somewhere. It's a C-level mission. No need to worry, they're just out of range, phew, that's a load off my mind, I can't wait to tell Neptune what happened! Come on guys, let's get back to the celebration...guys?

Weiss: Sun, this isn't right. This is a class C mission. Two day journey there.

Jaune: Kuroyuri, why does that sound familiar...

Sun: So? That just means it was easy

Weiss: This mission was two months ago. They should be back by now.

Sun: That's...odd.

Jaune: The village!

Weiss: What?

Sun: What?

Jaune: Kuroyuri, it's a town we passed through on the way here, hold on...[pulls up map on scroll] it's here, really close to Mistral.

Sun: Yeah, class C mission. Two days there, two days back.

Jaune: We took an airship, but yeah that sounds about right. Though I don't know why Kuroyuri needed an extermination, it's abandoned.

Sun: Maybe there was a high level Grimm that needed to be killed?

Jaune: Well there was, but we killed it. So your team had to have missed it.

Weiss: Teams.

Sun/Jaune: What?

Weiss: Teams. Plural, Sun's was the last, but three other teams were sent to Kuroyuri before they were.

Jaune: And they still managed to miss the Nucklavee?

Sun: The what?

Jaune: The Grimm that we fought. It was tough, but not three teams of Huntsmen tough.

Weiss: Make that four. Found another one.

Jaune: Hang on, Weiss, stop scrolling. Oniyuri. We passed that one too, it's been abandoned for years too. And Shion.

Sun: Wait wait wait. Shion's inhabited, I've taken an airship there.

Jaune: It was sacked by bandits a month ago, we, team RNJR, barely missed the attack by hours.

Weiss : So what's the problem with that mission?

Jaune: Look at the date, ABRN was sent less than a week after we left, due to "urgent request" the day before. Shion couldn't have sent word to Mistral via CCT, it was already destroyed by that point. And any foot messengers couldn't have been that far ahead of us.

Weiss: So someone's been sending Huntsmen and students on useless missions?

Sun: No. Someone's been sending Huntsmen on useless missions, and they haven't been coming back. Wait...no, not _just_ Huntsmen...

Weiss: Sun?

Jaune: Sun, what are you-hey, wait up!

Weiss: Sun, why are you running, slow down, what's going on?

Sun: ABRN, SSN, [huff] we're-they're-not huntsmen. [huff] Haven students aren't cleared to choose just any mission.

Weiss: Beacon has a similar policy. [huff]

Jaune: It's supposed to keep us from getting into trouble. [huff]

Sun: Exactly. [huff] Finally…

[Qrow's leaving a room, and is shutting a door]

Qrow: Hey, squirts, jeez, you look like you ran across half of campus. Why are you three out of breath? Something wro-Hey, kid, you can't go in there!

[Sun rushes past Qrow to the closing door and kicks it open revealing Leo Lionheart sitting on a cot]

Leo Lionheart: Agh! What's going on?

[Sun punches him]

Sun: What the hell did you do!

[Qrow grabs Sun and tries to hold him back]

Qrow: Kid, this is a secure area, nobody touches the prisoner, unless I say so. Schnee, lock down Leo, I don't want him getting out! Arc, guard the door.

[Glyph slams Leo into a wall]

Leo: AH!

Sun: Where's my team!

Qrow: What? Argh, goddammit kid, Schnee, what the hell is is talking about?

Weiss: We don't know, his team's missing on some mission!

Arc: He was talking about how his teammates were Huntsmen in training, and they couldn't be assigned real missions yet!

[Qrow struggles to hold back Sun]

Qrow: What? Of course you're not allowed to pick your own missions!

[Qrow gets elbowed in the neck by Sun]

Qrow: Ack! [cough] Arc, tag out!

[Qrow lets go and Jaune grabs Sun in a better hold as he's on the verge of tears]

Qrow: [cough] [cough] By the brothers you're stronger than you look. [cough] This is my point, you're [cough] all [cough] a bunch of hormonal idiots, [cough] and we can't let you on just any mission that's too delicate, [cough] or too dangerous. The only person cleared to authorize missions for students is...the...no….

Sun: Him!

Qrow: Leo, please tell me it was just huntsmen, please tell me you didn't do what I think you did…

[Weiss is visibly straining at holding the glyph in place and looks sideways at Qrow]

Weiss: What the hell are you two talking about?

Qrow: The headmaster. _That's_ the only person who can clear students for missions.

Sun: He knows, he knows what happened to them!

[Qrow pales]

Qrow: Them?

Jaune: His team-ah! [ducks one of Sun's swings]-and at least half of Haven academy. Sent to abandoned villages like Kuroyuri or Shion.

Qrow: Leo. What. Did. You. Do.

[Sun stops struggling and Weiss turns back towards Leo]

Leo: Salem...wanted her plans to have no impediments.

Qrow: **Leo** …

[Sun slumps in Jaune's arms]

Sun: SSN, ABRN, GRBN, all of the upperclassmen...gone?

Leo: I'm sorry. AH!

[Qrow's sword slams into the wall by Leo's head, shattering Weiss's glyph and dropping him to the floor and Weiss falls to her knees]

Jaune: Weiss?

Weiss: I'm good. I'm good...Let's get Sun out of here

[they pull Sun out of the room and shut the door]

Qrow: [leans in close to Leo] How dare you!

Leo: They were threats!

Qrow: They were **children**!

Leo: She would've killed me!

Qrow: THEY **TRUSTED** YOU!

Leo: I was a victim!

Qrow: **YOU! WERE! THEIR!** ** _TEACHER_** **!**

[Leo looks down in shame]

[Qrow hears quiet crying behind him]

[Qrow sighs, and pulls him sword out of the wall, and walks outside]

[Sun has his head buried in Jaune's chestplate, with Weiss and Jaune both hugging him]

Sun: [sobs] If I hadn't left-

Jaune: You would've gone with them. And you would've died. Trust me. I've fought Salem's people, if you'd been in one of her traps, you would've died as well.

Sun: [sobs] But then, [sobs] I wouldn't be alone.

Weiss: You're not alone Sun. You have us. We're your friends too.

Sun: [sobs] But it's never the same, is it? [sobs] Even if you have all the friends in the world, you'll never get _them_ back.

Jaune: …

Weiss: …

[The two look at each other and hold him tighter]

[Qrow looks at them, and quietly locks the door, and walks down the hallway away from them]

[Qrow stops when he's out of sight and pulls out a flask with the Beacon insignia on it]

[Qrow slams a fist into a wall, cratering it, and pulls it back]

[Qrow throws his flask behind him and keeps walking down the hallway alone]


End file.
